Jan Pomés

Candidacy for the Mayoralty of Cervera (2023)

In January 2023, Pomés was announced as the PSC's lead candidate for the municipal elections in Cervera, succeeding the incumbent Socialist councillor Raimond Fusté.^[6] In his presentation address, he advocated for a "progressive, open, inclusive, cross-cutting and cross-generational project" for the city.^[7]

Senator for Lleida, Pyrenees and Aran (from July 2023)

At the general elections of 23 July 2023, Pomés was elected Senator for the constituencies of Lleida, Pyrenees and Aran representing the PSC (Socialist Parliamentary Group), within the XV Legislature.^[3] He holds the following parliamentary positions in the Senate:

· Second Vice-president of the Committee on Economy, Trade and Enterprise

· Second Secretary of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

· Member of the Committee on Ecological Transition

· Member of the General Committee on Local Entities

Senate committee activity and contributions

Across his four committee memberships, Pomés has developed a distinctive parliamentary profile combining European economic governance, foreign affairs, environmental policy and local government advocacy.^[3][17]

Committee on Economy, Trade and Enterprise (Second Vice-president): In his capacity as Second Vice-president, Pomés has participated in the committee's oversight of Spain's macroeconomic performance, trade policy and enterprise competitiveness, in keeping with the committee's role in scrutinising the government's economic strategy and European economic commitments.^[3]

Committee on Foreign Affairs (Second Secretary): As Second Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Pomés holds one of the senior administrative positions of the committee's Mesa (steering bureau), presiding over meetings in the absence of senior officers and co-signing official documents and correspondence.^[18] His work in this committee has focused on parliamentary diplomacy, Spain's relations with Central Asia and the Western Balkans, and the promotion of Spain's role within the Council of Europe.^[19][5]

Committee on Ecological Transition (Member): Pomés has been a member of this committee since February 2024, participating in the scrutiny of Spain's climate policy, energy transition and environmental legislation, consistent with his commitment to multilateral governance and European Green Deal objectives.^[20]

General Committee on Local Entities (Member): His dual mandate as both senator and mayor of Cervera places him in a privileged position within this committee, which scrutinises legislation affecting Spain's municipalities, provincial councils and other local bodies. Pomés channels the interests of comarca capitals in the Ponent region into the national legislative process.^[3]

International parliamentary delegations

Brussels, February 2024 — European Parliamentary Week and Interparliamentary Conference on Economic Governance

On 12 and 13 February 2024, Pomés took part in the delegation of the Committee on Economy, Trade and Enterprise of the Senate of Spain to Brussels for the European Parliamentary Week, which included the Interparliamentary Conference on Stability, Economic Coordination and Governance in the European Union.^[21] The event, co-organised by the European Parliament, the Belgian Senate and the Belgian House of Representatives, brought together parliamentarians from the European Union, candidate and observer countries to discuss economic, budgetary and social matters in the context of the European Semester.^[22][23] The delegation was led by the First Vice-president of the committee, Teresa María Belmonte Sánchez, with Pomés serving as Second Vice-president.^[21] The conference provided a framework for debate and exchange of information and best practices on the implementation of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance and contributed to strengthening interparliamentary cooperation and democratic accountability in the field of EU economic governance.^[22][24]

Astana, Kazakhstan, 9–10 June 2025 — Delegation by invitation of the President of the Senate of Kazakhstan

Pomés travelled to Astana, Kazakhstan, as part of an official Senate delegation invited by the President of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan.^[19] The delegation comprised the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee, José Ignacio Landaluce Calleja, the President of the Agriculture, Livestock and Food Committee, Jorge Domingo Martínez Antolín, and Pomés as Second Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee.^[19] The delegation was received in Astana by the Spanish Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Luis Francisco Martínez Montes, who provided a briefing on the geopolitical situation in Kazakhstan and on the state of bilateral relations and Spanish business activity in the country.^[19]

During the two-day programme, the delegation held meetings with the Vice-president of the Senate of Kazakhstan, Olga Perepechina; the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Roman Vassilenko; and the Vice-Minister for Agriculture, Ermek Kenzhekhanuly. The delegation also visited the Astana Hub, the country's main technology and startup accelerator.^[19] Pomés intervened directly at the meeting with the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, highlighting the importance of bilateral relations between Spain and Kazakhstan and acknowledging Kazakhstan's efforts to ensure the effectiveness of sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine.^[19] At the meeting with the Vice-Minister for Agriculture, he raised the interests of Spanish agri-food companies and underscored the role of both countries as respective gateways between Europe and Central Asia.^[19] He also questioned the Astana Hub director on government funding mechanisms and the potential for collaboration with Spanish aerospace companies.^[19]

Skopje, North Macedonia, 23–25 November 2025 — Observation of EU Integration Process

In November 2025, Pomés participated as a member of a Spanish Senate delegation to Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, in the framework of the observation of North Macedonia's process of integration into the European Union.^[25] North Macedonia has been an EU candidate country since 2005 and officially opened accession negotiations with the EU in July 2022.^[26][27] The delegation's visit took place in the context of the parliamentary accompaniment of the country's accession process and included a personal meeting with the President of North Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, who became the first woman to hold the presidency of the country following her election in May 2024.^[28][29] Siljanovska-Davkova, a constitutional law professor and candidate of the nationalist-conservative party VMRO-DPMNE, has maintained the country's Euro-Atlantic orientation despite her nationalist platform, keeping EU accession as an objective of her government.^[29][27]

Chapters in edited volumes

• Pomés López, Jan (2020). "La generación Erasmus reclama más Europa: la generación que ha hecho posible un nuevo ciclo político". In Aldecoa Luzárraga, Francisco (ed.). El debate ciudadano en la Conferencia sobre el futuro de Europa. A los 70 años de la Declaración Schuman. Madrid: Marcial Pons. p. 471. ISBN 978-84-9123-847-8.
• Pomés López, Jan (2020). "[Contribution]". In Aldecoa Luzárraga, Francisco (ed.). La Unión Europea y la pandemia mundial. La Europa a la que vamos. Vol. 306. Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata. p. 288. ISBN 978-84-1352-122-0.
• Pomés López, Jan (2021). "La inspiración europeísta para las nuevas generaciones". José María Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado: Su aportación al pensamiento y a la construcción europea con motivo de su octogésimo quinto aniversario. Madrid: Marcial Pons. p. 267. ISBN 978-84-9123-949-9.
• Pomés López, Jan (2021). "[Contribution]". Enrique Barón Crespo: una vida dedicada a la construcción de la democracia europea. Madrid: Marcial Pons. p. 242.
• Pomés López, Jan (2020). "[Contribution]". In Nieto Fernández, María Isabel (ed.). La UE y el Mediterráneo a la luz de la Estrategia Global de Seguridad de la Unión: retos futuros en las políticas de vecindad, seguridad y defensa. Madrid: Dykinson. p. 208. ISBN 978-84-1377-144-1.
• Pomés López, Jan (2022). "El doble uso, civil y militar de los programas espaciales de la Unión Europea: el vínculo entre la Política Espacial y la Política Exterior y de Seguridad Común". Las Políticas de la Unión Europea. Madrid: Dirección General de Asuntos Europeos, Comunidad de Madrid.
• Pomés López, Jan (2025). "A modo de prefacio. El Consejo de Europa estudiado desde Cervera". In Aldecoa, Francisco; Xuclà, Jordi (eds.). Presencia y aportación española en el Consejo de Europa. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales. pp. 15–19. ISBN 978-84-259-2094-3.

Spanish federalism

Pomés situates himself within the tradition of democratic federalism within Catalan and Spanish socialism. From within the PSC, his vision is one of a reform of the Spanish state towards a federal structure, with a clear and symmetrical distribution of competences, in which the nations and regions composing Spain enjoy a genuine, constitutionally enshrined self-government.^[4] He contends that the State of the Autonomies, as configured since the Constitution of 1978, has exhibited structural limitations that must be overcome through a federal reformulation guaranteeing both territorial cohesion and respect for national diversity.^[33]

The Ventotene Manifesto as ideological foundation

His European federalism draws directly from the Ventotene Manifesto (Towards a Free and United Europe, 1941), the founding text of European federalism drafted by the anti-fascists Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi and Eugenio Colorni whilst held as prisoners of Mussolini's regime on the island of Ventotene.^[34] The Manifesto, first published in 1944 and regarded as the cornerstone of modern Europeanist thought, advocates the definitive abolition of Europe's division into sovereign nation-states and the creation of a European federation with a single army, monetary union and the elimination of customs barriers between member states.^[34][35] Pomés regards this document as the philosophical and political roadmap for the construction of a genuinely federal Europe, and it constitutes the central ideological reference of his leadership within the European Movement.^[4][5] The figure of Altiero Spinelli — patron saint of the European federalist tradition that Pomés embodies — stands as the foremost intellectual reference of his militant Europeanism.^[36]

European federalist principles

His European federalism finds expression in the following principles:^[4][5]

• Reform of the EU Treaties to advance towards a genuinely federal institutional architecture, with a European Parliament vested with full legislative powers and a European government answerable to its citizens.
• Defence of territorial and linguistic diversity as an asset of the European federation rather than an obstacle to integration.
• Greater agency for local and regional bodies in European decision-making, through an active application of the subsidiarity principle.
• Europeanism as a democratic instrument for cohesion, peace and prosperity: the European Union and the Council of Europe are regarded as the institutional frameworks that enabled Spain's democratic transition and its integration into the community of European democracies.
• The nexus between local and European identity: Cervera as an illustration of how a city of historic standing may simultaneously serve as a "gateway" to Europe.